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Nine, they look they’re already testing the water.
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Just curious – do Man Utd fans now feel more confident that Pogba’s future is secure at the club following the announcement of Solskjaer?
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Keita & Mahrez cost a combined £110 million this season. And neither have made significant contributions to their respective teams.
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On one hand Pochettino has said “we need maybe up to 10 years to instil a winning mentality into the team.” On the other hand he’s also said “winning cups only builds egos”. Funny how such inconsistency is being reflected on the pitch.
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As expected, this run in isn’t easy to watch…
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Anyone with half a brain could see a goal was coming for Spurs. But Klopp still waits for the goal anyway before making the needed changes.
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Been coming that.
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A half that epitomises Liverpool this season. When on top, they’re very good. But they’re not quite clinical enough to capitalise when they’re on top. They’ve also been very loose in possession all season, and things can sometimes get a bit nervy.
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I fancy Liverpool will have to be at their best today to get a result. Spurs are overdue a good result in the league, they’re too good a side to continue on the slump they’re on. Expect a narrow Liverpool win or draw.
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Man Utd have been panic buying in the transfer market for sometime making many signings in a desperate attempt to climb up the league. This started under Moyes and has continued ever since. One potential area of concern with Solskjaer is his experience in the transfer market. Whilst Man Utd will always be a big draw for players, players still like to go somewhere with a strong identity and philosophy with a clear plan. Does Solskjaer have a clear philosophy or has he simply found a simple formula for the players he inherited?? And add to that he’ll need to build and develop trust in a recruitment team. In that sense, there’s a long long way to go for Solskjaer yet.
On the other side of the coin, is the hope that Solskjaer will *develop* and *blood* the young academy players. Thinking more about the announcement in recent days, I suspect this has been a decisive factor in the decision the club has made – something the club has been keen to continue after Ferguson. If Solskjaer can at least deliver in this aspect of his job, then he’ll still play an important part of the future of the club, regardless of whether he lasts a significant time in the job.
For all the money in the game and star players, the most important factors that dictate the success of a club is how many leaders (ideally home grown) the team has and how effective the manager is.
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When Man Utd kept failing to announce any certainty over Solskjaer’s future, I thought, at last, they’ve found some wisdom to hold fire. But no, they’ve just thrown that out the window.
Psychologically, this will now alter Solskjaer’s mindset. Rather than keeping him on his toes (which was no bad thing and would have kept him sharp and eager to deliver and prove himself), it has changed the dynamic. In one sense he may be get too relaxed and settled, in another there will now be an expectation to keep delivering at the high bar he has set for himself. But what if Man Utd now don’t make the top 4?? That surely is a crucial target this season that has arguably been threatened by this decision. Also, it’s getting to the point now that Man Utd actually need a title rather than a few more domestic cups/top 4 places.
I disliked the Gary Neville comment some time ago that “if Ole didn’t get the job, they’d be mutiny among Man Utd fans.” We’ll see what happens, but it’s useful to bear in mind that those who try to lead mobs usually end up being chased by them.
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Whilst Spurs are obviously now out the title race (though some may argue they never were in it), I don’t think it ever helps when a manager publicly declares it, like Poch did after the Burnley game in February. If your target suddenly changes at the business end of the season from the title to top 4, that’s going to be pretty demoralising and ain’t going to help the team’s confidence one bit. (Indeed look at their form since the Burnley game). Also Poch’s line about trophies only building your ego didn’t help either and in any case, their league form stuttered anyway. And now I’d argue they’re in that awful predicament of juggling being in the latter stages of the CL whilst also fighting to stay in the top 4 domestically. The CL is such a curse in that regard for such clubs. Those 3 games vs Man City, particularly the last league game, will be huge. As I said recently, I actually fancied Spurs to still make top 4 this season. And whilst Spurs are still a very good capable side, they’ve put themselves under big pressure over the last few months, and the timing couldn’t be worse. All that said, you’d still expect some kind of reaction from them soon (there should still be a lot of togetherness in that dressing room, and the spark of the new stadium should help when they start playing there). So I certainly wouldn’t discount them vs Liverpool (who have also struggled after a break).
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It may have been relatively short lived, and there were no trophies to show, but Torres was incredible in his time at Liverpool.
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You can’t hugely change the European Cup to the CL with more teams, much more money and greater prestige and not expect it to diminish the UEFA Cup/EL. Giving the finalists of the EL a CL place may help a bit, but it’s ultimately just a cosmetic change that can’t solve the root of the problem, ie making the EL a prestigious trophy again. It used to be a very respectable trophy – the best of the rest if you like. Now it’s basically used by big teams like Chelsea who are struggling domestically to make top 4 and so go for it, effectively making it a play off trophy, and nothing much more than that. Indeed dropping the CL teams into the EL competition further highlights it being a ‘losers’ trophy and indeed many want to avoid it anyway with the congestion of Thursday night football.
I’d consider scrapping it and instead, all the teams finishing 5th in their domestic leagues then play a short knockout competition to decide the final CL place at the end of the season.
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Arsenal have had somewhat of a surge. On 12th January they were just 2 points better off than at the same stage last season. They are now 12 points better off than at the same stage last season. Only Liverpool have a bigger improvement compared to last season. Though the surge may just be a temporary one and their form can still be erratic.
I think Chelsea might now be tempted to go for the EL as a pathway to the CL, which could help the other teams in the top 4 race, though they are still somewhat all over the place. The only reason Sarri is still in a job imo is because I really don’t think there’s anyone else available who could come in and significantly kick them on. There’s a real dearth of top managers available.
Spurs certainly need to shake themselves up a bit. Indeed the game with Liverpool will be a huge one for both sides because Spurs may have to go for it. But like Arsenal under Wenger for many years, you’d sense they’ll stilll probably be ok…just.
I think the fixture congestion is getting to Man Utd. So I wouldn’t hit panic stations just yet, but it’s certainly a testing time for them.
So I think both Spurs and Man Utd are the teams I’d go for at this stage to get top 4 because I think there is more natural fight in the two teams vs the rest (even if both teams have been in mixed form recently – I think it’s more down to injuries and fixture congestion getting to them).
Whereas Arsenal and Chelsea can still be erratic when you’re not necessarily expecting them to be._____________________________
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Sarri-out brigade out again. I think the club are in a dilemma. Whilst Sarri isn’t getting the best out of the team, the problem is there is a real dearth of top managers available at the moment. I don’t even think Uncle Guus is an option any more. So I think that’s why they’ve sat on the fence with regard to them making a decision. And should they fail to make top 4 this season, and with a transfer ban upheld over summer, that significantly puts top 4 at risk again next season. Critical few months ahead for the club. (And not quite sure they’ve got it in them to win the EL).
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I never thought Ryan Babel could come back to haunt us.
So much for the solidity supposedly being back.
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Seem to remember Southampton replacing Nigel Adkins with Poch even though Adkins was doing a very good job. And it turned out that was a bold but good decision (that’s not to say Poch is necessarily right for Man Utd now). At the moment there’s a lot of emotion that is trying to dictate that Solskjaer should be permanent boss. As Ed and others have said, the board have been right to try and see through that.
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I think it’s been a great draw, keeps the favourites apart (for the moment), and some fascinating battles ahead.
My general rule of thumb that dictates the success and ultimately the winners of the CL, are the teams that not only have many special players, but also the one with real leaders and togetherness.
That’s why I struggle to see many past Juve, as they tick all those boxes and as Ed alluded to, Ronaldo is like adding two world class matchwinners to your team.
It would be great to see Ronaldo and Messi square off in the final (assuming Liverpool don’t make it).
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